Chapter 239

I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 239: Before Death

Before Death
Chapter 239. Before Death

Meanwhile, Alberto and Ruri were engaged in close-quarters combat with Gokma.
Until now, Gokma, who had only confronted them by twisting and unraveling space, showed more of his repertoire.
“Space shattered.”
Dimensional Rupture.
A high-dimensional magic that even mages skilled in spatial magic find difficult.
As all of space twisted and fell into disarray, everything visible looked like staring at the fragments of a broken window.
Because space is warped, even adapting to it is difficult.
It causes confusion where even how to step, how to move, everything becomes tangled.
Only Gokma himself could maintain composure within it.
Most go mad before reaching this stage, which is why among spatial mages it is also known as forbidden magic.
The most affected was Ruri.
Since she used agile movements as her weapon, her vision grew dizzy and she naturally slowed down.
If she were an ordinary person, she would lose her sense of direction after just ten steps and faint.
But Ruri was a dragon spawn who was a warrior.
Finding a way out somehow was her job.
Her innate senses adapted in adversity, and she was able to move freely to some extent.
Attacks attempting to destroy buildings came and went several times, trying to push Gokma back once again.
Ruri and Alberto did not exchange words.
However, as combat veterans, they knew what they had to do.
Ruri became the driver who cornered Gokma, and Alberto moved as the executioner who dealt slow but precise blows.
Gokma died several times, but each time he was replaced and appeared again.
While the tense confrontation continued, what stopped their bodies was something unexpected.
— This is…
— Smell of sulfur…
In this space of death, the scent of sulfur began to spread.
It grew denser to the point that it could not be dismissed as mere concern, and the entire area filled with sulfur.
Why is this smell appearing?
Both had the same question, but Gokma seemed to know the answer.
He let out a hollow laugh and spoke.
— Do you know why I dislike humans?
— …
— Because their will breaks before death, and they become slaves. Just like now.
He continued speaking as if he knew this would happen.
— The Master of Death has arrived. It seems Heinkel has finally succumbed to death after all.
He makes a face that seems bitter, but at the same time smiles.
— Well, it is fortunate that it is within expectations. Who in the world can remain noble before death? Not even I could.
Then the shattered space returned to its original state.
— My role ends here. I will leave now.
Gokma drew a line in the air, and a dizzying space opened up.
Ruri and Alberto did not want to let him go.
It was then that it happened.
Pajik—!
— Huh?
A strange fissure appeared in the space Gokma had opened.
A fissure that destroys fissures.
Pajangchang!
Space shattered like a thin pane of glass breaking, and returned to the form of mana.
What emerged through the faint blue light was a single sword.
And a woman.
— Uht!
Gokma forcibly twisted his body before the unexpected attack.
That blade cut Gokma’s shoulder and pierced through him.
— You are…
A body wearing nothing but rags crouched like a beast, and the sword held in her hand rose like a beast’s claw.
That sword was what had severed space just now.
— Sak!
That woman’s eyes glowed blue as she stared intently at Gokma.
When Gokma met that gaze, he felt his own death.
Gokma penetrated the essence of those eyes.
— Eyes that show death, the Eye of Death. Then, does that mean you are the Saint of Sierra?
She replied.
— Man.
— “Man” means affirmation. The Wolf is here, but the Chain is not visible… I see. Is the Chain already moving?
— …
The woman did not answer.
Instead, only her sword gleamed in this hell.
Yet Gokma merely laughed.
He already knew where she went.
— Life is truly unpredictable.
— What an insolent thing.
The King of Heinkel, turned into a skeleton, slammed Ferda straight into the ground.
— Keuk!
Ferda was helpless.
No barrier to deploy, breathing was difficult, and his mind was hazy.
He had no choice but to accept the King of Heinkel’s martial might as it was.
— Try ranting once more.
The King of Heinkel could be felt in the deeply resonating voice.
However, his atmosphere of agony and heaviness no longer existed.
Bewitched by a demon, he entrusted his body to madness, and now only pleasure remains.
— You said mages save the best for last, so where did that confident face of yours go?
He lifts Ferda’s body again and slams it into the ground.
Ribs broke.
His vision kept flashing.
Ferda had no further methods.
“The only way is if someone comes to stop this even now.”
He could only wish for such a miracle.
Yet did such a wish arrive?
Kwaang!
Someone kicked the door open and entered the space where only the two of them were.
Hope for reinforcements arose, but that too did not last long.
What was felt upon entering through the door was immense heat.
It was Ureas in the form of Amon.
— Hehehehehe!!!
Ureas letting out a frivolous laugh like an immature child.
— So you were here, Regent Ferda! Did this rat bastard think he could escape by avoiding me?
Ureas threw something he had been dragging.
It was Count Rooster’s head.
In the end, Rooster could use no means and seems to have died at the hands of the Second Prince.
— Now it is your turn! I will cut off your head and send it to your fiancée!
Ureas threw the sword he held at Ferda.
It aimed precisely at Ferda’s body, but did not reach his body.
The King of Heinkel had blocked the sword aimed at Ferda.
Ureas became wildly enraged.
— What are you?! If you are a corpse, stay quiet like a corpse, how dare you block this Ureas’s path?!
— That is what I want to say. Do you not even know thanks to whom you were revived?
— Why would I know! I must have been revived because I am magnificent!
Ureas spoke in an arrogant voice.
— Serve me, useless trash. If you do, I will gladly make you my vassal.
— What insolent words.
Swearing dominion before the Demon of Immortality and Legions was an unforgivable provocation.
The deficient Ureas and Heinkel finally clashed against each other.
Since a caught fish falls to the background, Ferda in that state tried to escape somehow in this opening.
“Move…”
He shook his arms praying that strength remained somewhere in his muscles.
He tried to stand several times, but each time his body only responded that it was already broken.
X marks lining up on a checklist.
Finally, even the lifeline of hope vanished, and Ferda felt death.
“I do not want to die.”
Birth and death are the natural order, but who would want to die?
“I want to return alive.”
Ferda is also human.
A human who only wishes to return alive.
“Valdrova.”
He wanted to see that face again.
He misses her so much he is going crazy.
“At least if I am dying, if only I could have time to reassure that woman and die…”
That was Ferda’s wish.
It was then that.
— You can.
To desperate humans, demons flock.
Yet to Ferda, it was not a demon.
A sweet voice that slept inside him approached Ferda’s side.
What had been confined to a voice now possessed a tangible form.
A warm hand upon Ferda’s face.
And it stroked his body.
— In this irrationality, it is fine for you to let yourself go even a little.
— I… to you…
He looked up and saw her, and Ferda felt his words choke.
That form was none other than his mother, Anna Rosnova.
— Ferda…
That moist voice was also the same.
Unconsciously, he ended up calling that voice like that.
— M-mother…
— You truly had a hard time while I was gone.
A warm comfort touched Ferda’s heart.
He could not believe it.
Was the voice whispering inside him his mother?
— Ferda… believe in your power and use it.
— My power… you say?
— Yes… it is right here, is it not?
She touches something inside Ferda’s danjeon.
It was the Dark Circle forged from Ferda’s regret.
— Use this… then everything will turn out fine.
— Everything, you say?
— Yes. This power can create the world you desire, and you can also return to your fiancée.
He can return to Valdrova.
Two pairs of horns and red hair.
Golden feline eyes that shone with purity and moist lips.
Soft hands and a slender shoulder line.
He can return to her, who is his everything.
— Just this once is enough.
Anna Rosnova’s form waved her fingers.
At that moment, something astonishing happened to Ferda.
He felt vitality return to a body that looked like it would die just moments ago.
That was not all.
An enormous amount of mana that he had not been able to feel until now also surged at the same time.
Just like in Ferda’s prime.
Similar to the mana back then.
— Let us show them what we are made of.
The voice said that.
Yet the movement of the Dark Circle stops.
Because Ferda took her hand.
— Why…?
“If I awaken that… I will become a human no different from back then.”
— Does that scare you?
“Yes, I… know how terrifying that is.”
Ferda knew.
It would not end with just this once.
Once becomes twice, twice becomes four times, and later he would use it as if it were natural.
“Then what meaning is there in me… returning like that?”
— …
Ferda pulled his hand away.
It was the same sensation as the last time he had touched her.
“Please, Mother. Please let me remain human. Please… let me die like this.”
That was Ferda’s resolve.
His breath finally stopped, and Ferda fell into an eternal silence.
— With whose permission?
An intense pain was felt at that moment.
“Keueok!”
Ferda’s spirit awoke abruptly.
It felt as if someone had reached their hand into Ferda’s heart and squeezed it.
When he came to his senses, the form of the mother that was visible was still smiling kindly.
— Son, son. Did you think destiny depends on your heart?
Another hand touches Ferda’s circle.
— Destiny is destiny because it cannot be avoided. You tried to avoid the destiny of hatred and rage that you must embrace, but you cannot.
That finger stirred the Dark Circle inside Ferda’s body.
The circle spun faster following the finger’s movement.
Vitality gushed from Ferda’s body.
The surging vitality ironically attempted to superimpose something other than Ferda onto himself.
And he himself attempted to let his consciousness drop far away.
— Because if you avoid destiny, you must die.
Ferda gritted his teeth and stared intently at that woman.
Anna Rosnova whispered kindly in his ear.
— I will do it if you are alive. Be it a great tragedy or a comedy.
Ferda fell into the abyss.
Ureas and the King of Heinkel continued fighting each other.
Every time they attacked, they dealt fatal blows that shattered half of each other’s bodies, but they recovered immediately, continuing an endless fight.
— Stop for a moment.
The first to stop the fight was the King of Heinkel.
He ceased fighting and looked elsewhere.
Ureas looked where the King of Heinkel was looking, and followed his gaze to notice it.
What they were looking at was Ferda.
Ferda, half-dead, was kneeling.
He had no strength left even to kneel.
The reason their gazes were stolen was not that.
Ferda’s body was arched backward, and something began to form from his chest.
Darkness even darker than darkness.
A mass formed in darkness itself.
Since he used Shadow Arts, he already knew such a thing existed.
Yet that darkness was incomparably strange.
A white ring enveloped the edge.
— What on earth is that…?
It was something rarely seen even with Gamigin’s knowledge.
While Heinkel examined it in silence, Ureas did not miss the opportunity.
— I will kill you, Ferda!
Ureas, heedless of the danger, charged toward Ferda.
Then something astonishing happened.
— Huh?
As he drew closer, what constituted Ureas’s body turned to ash and lost its form.
The ash was entering that black circle.
— W-what?!
Even the foolish Ureas knew this was a dangerous phenomenon.
He stopped advancing and stepped back.
Although the distance increased, the dispersal did not stop.
— Ah, no! I cannot die! I do not want to die!
It only grew fiercer with the passage of time, and there was no way to resist.
Finally, Ureas’s form vanished entirely.
The King of Heinkel, observing everything, and Gamigin, could not conceal their astonishment.
— Now I understand.
Gamigin was finally able to define what that form was.
— Dark Moon?
The darkest darkness among darknesses.
It is so dark that it absorbs all surrounding light, and the afterglow of light forms a faint ring-shaped border.
Not even Gamigin knows what happens to things that enter it.
Because that was the body of the ultimate void that demon followers desired.
— You are not human. No, are you human and yet something else? Your essence feels like molten minerals in a blast furnace. What on earth are you?
There was no way an answer would return to Gamigin’s question.
Instead, the deep darkness spun as if responding.
The Great Demon Gamigin released the possession and fled to Hell.
He returned to being the intact consciousness of the King of Heinkel.
The Dark Moon slowly devoured the King of Heinkel’s body.
He too was disappearing like Ureas.
“N-no…!”
The King of Heinkel also screamed.
“No! I do not want to die! I do not want to diiie!”
In the end, there was only an eternal silence.
The Dark Moon did not disappear.
It was calmly swallowing light as if awaiting new prey.
The fortress that lost its master began to collapse.